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Story:Magical Space Adventures
“The Galactic Consortium is a collective of four sovereign planets and a multitude of lesser worlds under a shared banner of freedom, economic prosperity, and scientific development, working together to expand horizons of the arcane, the technological, the philosophical, and the astronomical. Instead of a blanket ruling body, the Consortium is designed to work in tandem with the governmental systems of all sovereign bodies within its reach, supplying a shared pool of knowledge, communications, and power to all who would better from it. Led presently by Chancellor Eynas Marduk and a small legislative body consisting of members elected from all sovereign worlds under its protection, the Galactic Consortium has proven its usefulness in the two hundred years since its genesis, accelerating all peoples from all worlds under its protective blanket into a burgeoning new era of arcane and galactic exploration, constantly pushing the limits of our understanding, and discovering infinite new horizons in this magnificent galaxy we call home.” Encyclopedia Tusaga, Foreword, by Supreme Sanctor Kavan Terevanas MAGICAL SPACE ADVENTURES ---- Welcome to the Encylopedia Tusaga, the largest repository of knowledge in the known galaxy. The current date is GC. Your location has been registered as ERROR_80000103_UNKNOWN. You have been logged as ANONYMOUS_USER_1003XX456913. Please select an article to continue. The White Ring Galaxy Galactic Primer The White Ring is a thin, disc-like lenticular galaxy, and home of the Galactic Consortium. The galaxy is inhabited in largest part by ‘space whales’ - majestic, divine beasts of planetary size and unknown origin, who silently swim through the void along shimmering canals of space known as the Space Whale Migration Paths, or simply “migration paths”. Within these paths, space is heavily compressed and arcane power is massively amplified, and superluminar interstellar travel is possible along such paths with an appropriately shielded vessel, both externally (to protect against the multitude of collisions with hyperrelativistic gas and dust particles) as well as internally (inertial dampening, such that the acceleration beyond light speed does not instantly fuse one with their cabin wall). Additionally, it is well-documented that arcane and psionic magics are amplified greatly within immediate proximity of a migration path or space whale, and that planets and planetoids nearer to whale migration paths tend to result in development of fauna of greater magical aptitude. To this end, the Space Whales are seen as the cultivators of life and magic within the White Ring, and several religions worship them as god-like beings that deserve supplication to continually supply lifeforce to all living beings. However, to date, no sign of any sentience within these beings has been detected, nor has any attempt to communicate with them been successful. Sovereign Planets of the Galactic Consortium Malridan * A medium-sized blue planet, home to humans and their genetic variants. The people of Malridan were the first among the planets of the Consortium to develop space travel, then expanded upon it via the development of inertial shielding and Neutrino Amplification Drives (NADs), long-term, high-power, non-fuel-based engines powered by collection of solar energy enhanced by arcane-assisted photon amplification in small vehicles called Starlight Cores. These two technologies in tandem with research into space whale migration paths led to the first reproducible form of superluminal transportation. It was not long after that Malridan began exploring its corner of the White Ring, coming into contact with Tusaga and then Pyrrhus within a decade. While the Weren of Tusaga welcomed their human visitors with open arms, immediately exchanging their advanced stellar cartography and superluminal communications systems for Malridan’s space-faring technology, the people of Malridan were greeted by the Fraal of Pyrrhus with hostility, their extremely advanced arcanopsionic defenses taking out several Malridian ships and several thousand humans on first contact. Once communication had been established and the peaceful intent of the Malridians confirmed, the Fraal (and later, the T’sa of the planet’s obverse side) took well to the Malridians, welcoming them to their home planet, and offering reparations for those they killed. The only reparations the Malridians requested, however, was participation in an interstellar union of worlds, the Galactic Consortium - to which all four races of both worlds agreed upon, and so was born. Since then, Malridan has been the Consortium’s most racially diverse hub of citizens, as well as the most technologically advanced planet within the Consortium, a veritable garden of development in all fields, and welcoming beacon to all who would call the Galactic Consortium home. Tusaga * Slightly smaller than Malridan, Tusaga is a planet of jagged, violent landscapes and untamed wilds. Home to the Weren, a race of humanoids averaging seven to eight feet tall, very heavily built and covered in long hair ranging in shades from gray to tan to white to black. While extremely brutish-looking in appearance, the Weren pride themselves on their deep cultural and philosophical development, believing as a race that development of the self and advancement of philosophy is just as important, if not more so, than advancement of technology and scientific understanding - though understanding at a level they are fundamentally intertwined. While they did not develop space travel by the time Malridan encountered them, their astronomy and stellar cartography was vastly more developed, having a near complete live predictive map of the entire White Ring galaxy, and they had discovered psionics through deep analysis of arcane magic. The Weren were immediately open and welcoming of their Malridian visitors, having detected with said psionics their peaceful intent before they even arrived. Technology was readily exchanged between the two planetary civilizations, and shortly thereafter the Weren began exploring the cosmos as an independently space-faring entity. * The planet, relatively early in its development compared to Malridan, consists of a single gigantic, untamed, wild continent known as the Motherland, surrounded by a planetary ocean, the Eternal Blue. Civilized land only takes up about 20% of the landmass of the small planet - gigantic city-states settled by Weren expand across the heart of the Motherland, connected by the Tame Lands, wilds that have been hunted and charted but not settled. Surrounding the tame “bubble” of land, outward in all directions, are the wild, untamed Tusagan Lands. Some cities on the outer rim of the Tame Lands will occasionally send hunting parties into the Tusagan Lands to explore and hunt, but more often than not it is left untouched, both in respect of the planet’s wilds and in fear of what they might do if disturbed. All Weren cities except one are connected by a continual mass of Tame Lands. * Tusaga is the only uniquely habited planet with a united language, Vjalar - though each city-state has its own unique dialect of it, and in some of the larger ones there exist multiple dialects and pronunciations. While each of the city-states within the Motherland have Vjalar names, the Weren prefer that non-Weren use their Galactic Common names, and are catalogued as such, even in the Encyclopedia Tusaga. * Waterfall, Sunrise, Mist, and Shadow are the largest and best-known Tusagan cities, each one spanning an area equivalent to that of a small country on Malridan. The White Ring Live Interface, a constantly-updating map of every celestial body in the White Ring galaxy and the transits of vessels within the Consortium confines, is maintained and broadcast from Waterfall, and the Archives at Shadow house the Encyclopedia Tusaga, the Galactic Consortium’s single largest collective of knowledge across the stars, and accessible from almost anywhere within the Consortium. Skyfire, the northernmost city on the Motherland and the only one not connected by the Tame Lands, boasts one of the greatest arcane and psionic research academies in the Consortium, and is the home of the Tusagan Holy Order of Naturalists, who are responsible for the exploration and cataloguing of almost all of the lesser planetoids under the purveyance of the Consortium. Pyrrhus * A sizable planet bisected along its prime meridian by a gigantic ocean, and home to two independently developed sentient races, the Fraal and the T’sa. The Fraal live on the western hemisphere, stand 1.5 to 2 meters tall on average, possessing spindly humanoid bodies with elongated limbs and phalanges that might look weak and frail to an outsider. Their heads are large, ovaloid, and bulbous, and possess two gigantic dome-like eyes that take up a majority of their face. The T’sa, who live on the other side of the planet from their Fraal brethren, are a race of short humanoids, averaging half a meter to a meter tall, possessing partially scaled bodies and a fleshy “headdress” of horns, as well as long, dextrous fingers that make them excellent engineers, their technical prowess unrivaled by any in the Consortium. * With first contact made after development of superluminal migration-path-traversing vessels, Pyrrhus was first discovered at a distance by Tusagans who detected arcane residue surrounding the exoplanet - a telltale sign of sentient inhabitants capable of using magic. Together, Malridian and Tusagan scientists and pilots set a course for the planet to establish first contact - but the peace through which Malridians and Tusagans greeted each other left them wholly unexpecting and unprepared for the hostility with which the Fraal of Pyrrhus lashed out when they arrived. Their ship was immediately attacked in low orbit by patrol vessels, and the resulting crash landing killed five of the twelve on the crew. The rest were apprehended forcibly upon arrival, but were released after a thorough psychic examination. Both major races of Pyrrhus, the Fraal and T’sa, defended their actions, arguing that statistically it was much more likely that foreign agents from unknown space were hostile than not, but still they felt remorse and sought to establish a relationship with Malridan and Tusaga despite the circumstances of their first contact. Pyrrhan emissaries were sent back to both planets, and the wisdom and technology of that world shared with the other two. Pyrrhus has developed space travel, and was beginning to understand the mechanics behind space whale migration paths, but their true forte was in psionics - a field of arcane study that the Weren in all their wisdom had only just begun to tap, but a power that almost all Fraal possessed innately, and manipulated as readily as other arcane magics. In an offering of peace, and with hopes to turn the questioning approval of the Malridan populace of the Fraal positive, a union of the three planets was put forward, spearheaded by Rodger Dalamor, a retired military captain from Malridan’s East Estria and a political figure of great public favor, and one of the first contractors of both Tusaga and Pyrrhus. The planetary union, named the Galactic Consortium would pool knowledge, resources, and military power in the name of galactic exploration and domestic development. National leaders from each major government of Malridan, the elected leaders of all of Tusaga’s city-states, T’sa councilpeople, and Fraal elected leaders all met in the city of Sunrise on Tusaga and drafted the basis of the Galactic Consortium, on what is known in Consortium history as Day Zero. Kiara (Shephardine) * Massive overpopulation and resource drought became an issue for Malridan shortly after the development of the Galactic Consortium, and to solve both issues, the people of Malridan set their sights on Kiara - a planet within their same stellar system, with plentiful land, a robust atmosphere, and a mineral-rich crust. As such, Kiara became a prime target both for mineral drilling and, eventually, settlement. The original settlers were still considered Malridian, and all economic exchanges made between the settlers of Kiara and the consumers of Kiaran resources on Malridan were considered domestic to Malridan territory. Disputes in second and third generation Kiarans over fiscal ownership of transactions between Malridan and Kiara eventually led to the Malridan-Kiara Space War (see “The First Great Space War” entry below), resulting in major technological developments in travel, warfare, and defense in the void, and leading to Kiara earning its independence, as well as being recognized by the Galactic Consortium as its fourth sovereign member, granted full privileges enjoyed by the original three members. * Shephardine, the planet’s sole celestial satellite, originally served as a dropoff outpost for interplanetary excursions of goods between Malridan and Kiara; however, the owners of those companies overseeing the trade taking place on the moon became so wealthy that, once the Malridan-Kiara Space War had passed, they funded the conversion of Shephardine from a Malridan-owned trading outpost to a gigantic artificial resort on the near side of the tidally locked moon, owned purely by private interests and frequently used as a pseudo-”neutral” ground for Galactic Consortium gatherings. To date, Shephardine is considered the highest-class facility in the Consortium, a dream destination of all who seek the high life. On the rear side of Shephardine is carved a massive memorial to all who died or went MIA in the First Great Space War, with over a billion gigantic stone monuments carved into its surface, all funded by the Consortium, and a gigantic high-speed transport system for use free of charge for any visitors who would seek to pay respects. Lesser Planets under Consortium Purveyance Meridian (Asana) * An exoplanet in the Maliris-II system approximately equidistant between Malridan and Pyrrhus, this small, rocky planet was settled and colonized largely by interplanetary transporters, eventually rising to minor popularity as a "truck stop" on goods shipments across Consortium space due to its central location. Even along whale migration paths, the journeys can take several Galactic days, and while modern cargo vessels do not necessarily need to stop for refueling anymore, the colonies of Meridian still retain some business for travelers along the way. Outside of vagrant transporters making pit stops and staying the night at the famous "breakfast brothels" of Highneon, the only other source of income for the planet is from exporting products acquired from hover cows - curious, somewhat cute rotund beasts that float slightly off the ground, and whose biological products such as dung, milk, and leather also possess this floating characteristic, hovering roughly a meter above whatever surface it is presented on, for reasons that science cannot fully explain. While the products have their niche uses across the Consortium, and their mere existence draws some four-figures of tourists each Galactic year, they largely serve as a nuisance to the farmers who have to wrangle the plump, playful beasts. * Asana is Meridian's sole moon, a small tan rock riddled with canyons and meteoric craters, and home to the other famous hovering beast of the Maliris-II system: hover spiders. While they possess the same genetic floating quality of their bovine brethren terrestrial-side, these monsters, ranging in size from a decimeter at birth to upwards of two to three meters long at full maturity, possessing of bulbous bodies and an octet of horrifying serrated limbs, produce hover spider venom and hover spider silk, the former a potent chemical agent and the latter the most sought-after bra fabric in the galaxy. These resources come at a price, however - hover spiders are incredibly sensitive, a trait that has proven impossible to breed out, and as such can only be extracted by soft, fleshy human hands. However, the wrong touch or accidental itch in the wrong place, and their primal instincts kick in, usually resulting in the horrific dismemberment and/or consumption of the harvester. Considered one of the most difficult and least rewarding jobs in the galaxy, the hover spider harvesters at the Asana Secure Detainment Facility (ASDF) are always given wide berths and free drinks at any bar they end up at back on Meridian once their shift is over. Razhfjara * A planet within the Three Heavens trinary planar star system alongside Tusaga, Razhfjara was explored shortly after Malridian voyagers taught Tusagans the means of interstellar space travel. A space whale migration path runs directly through the solar system of Razhfjara, and as such the natural life on the planet has reached a state of extreme complexity and chaos. Upon landing on it, the Tusagan Holy Order of Naturalists deemed Razhfjara a forbidden place “lest we disturb this mad design of the cosmos”, disallowing all research or visitation, save for very occasional Holy Order fly-bys to scout for trespassers. The Order has published their findings from their first landing in a book, now digitized, called the Razhfjaronesis, which details but a minute sampling of the wild natural order of the planet. Such sights as carnivorous forests, living crystalline fields, kilometer-tall walking plains, psionic hivemind birds of prey, sentient storms, bipedal bird-like creatures that have carved cities out of canyons, and many more, line the pages of the book, considered one of the most sacred in all Tusagan culture. Despite the wild, magical diversity of life on the planet, the Order did not find any intelligent, sentient civilization on the planet, a fact which both surprised them and spurred the total lockdown of the planet. In recent years, the ban on Razhfjara has been lifted ever so slightly, allowing Holy Order naturalists and researchers to make heavily moderated visits in order to perform research on the wilds there. Mephaestus * A small planet within the Three Heavens system, possessing of multiple liquid water oceans and just as many “oceans” of trees, much like those found on Malridan but of tens of thousands of different documented varieties, in wildly varying size, thickness, buds, and other features. Despite the highly fertile conditions and very high oxygen density, no other flora appear to have taken root on Mephaestus that the ocean-forests of trees have not completely dominated. The wildlife among the trees is primarily in the form of insectoid creatures ranging in size from decimeter to several meters in length, and most have either developed small, high-power wings or many long legs with serrated attachments to enable swift movement between the trees. SODAR scans hint at much larger living masses, on the scale of terrestrial whales of Malridan, living deeper within these ocean-forests; however, these have not yet been witnessed with living eyes. * Consortium planetary resource mining vessels, largely run by Malridians and Tusagans, have established a space base at Outpost MEP-II, in low-planetary orbit around Mephaestus, as well as a terrestrial base, Holdor, at which natural resources, largely wood and chemical agents derived from said flora, are harvested from the planet at a massive rate. The Tusagan Holy Order of Naturalists oversees the resource excavation, to ensure that no permanent harm is done to the landscape, as well as to research the various new organic materials found there; however, the consensus of both the Order and the miners is that it is impossible for their mining efforts to cause permament planetary damage at their current rate due to the sheer size and speed at which the flora reproduces itself; however, due caution is always put forward, out of respect for the rate that Consortium resource mining technology is enhanced. Major Events and Developments in the History of the Galactic Consortium Day Zero (GY 0) Superluminal communications developed (GY 17) * Largely developed by T’sa engineers after the advent of the Galactic Consortium due to the massive influx of new technology and means of controlling magic, near-instantaneous trans-stellar communications were achieved in Galactic Year seventeen (GY 17) of the Consortium, via arcanotech chips that change states based on the states of inductive paired chips created simultaneously. This state change is not dependent on distance, so it can be used to create readable states, and thus transmit information, almost instantaneously across vast distances. While it appears instantaneous over short distances, the true time-delay has been measured from Malridan to Pyrrhus, roughly 90% of the diameter of the Consortium, to be on the order of thirty seconds. This delay, while useful for tracking and other minor technical purposes, is not noticeable to most laypeople, and now the majority of Consortium citizens possess spatially inductive entanglement communications chips in some form, either through communications devices or surgically embedded for instantaneous psionic communication across the galaxy. The First Great Space War (GY 21-25) * When the first and second generations of native Kiarans were born and began developing the land as their own, they sought fiscal independence from their old mother planet, and wanted to establish trade between Malridan and Kiara as an independent entity, and not to have their means of production and profit controlled by Malridan businesses and governments. Negotiations began and tensions grew, but due to the disparate nature of the financial arrangements between Malridians and Kiaran suppliers, no major conclusion was reached before tensions overflowed - specifically, in the Malridian bombing of a Kiaran supply vessel of known proponents of Kiaran independence, destroying several million space dollars worth of supplies and killing over thirty people on board. The act was deemed that of a terrorist front by Malridian corporate agents controlling major governments, and the Kiaran United Front, the government under which the settlers of Kiara were protected, declared war on the Malridian nations of Eastern and Western Estria, the Gorlican Empire, and the Vendel Federation, the major nations involved with Kiara trade. Per a vote put forward by the Council of Traders in the Vendel Federation, the Vendels agreed to recognize Kiaran independence immediately, and effectively withdrew themselves from the war, while the Gorlican Empire and the two republics of Estria united under the flag of the Malridian Alliance and entered the fray. * The war lasted just over four Malridian years, and cost the lives of almost a billion people, as well as nearly 400 trillion space dollars worth of ships and materials. Though the First Great Space War was the largest intentional loss of life in the Galactic Consortium, it dramatically advanced the fields of space travel and both generation and manipulation of energy, as well as weapons development on both a small and large scale, such as arcane railguns, metamissiles, and the Gravity Bomb, a weapon of incredible destruction that nearly leveled all settled land on Kiara and made much more of it unusable. While the technology was developed by Malridian scientists and was first used against Kiarans, not three days later Kiara dropped an even larger one on Malridan, completely leveling the capitol city of the Gorlican Empire, Tossa, and dozens of smaller cities around it. * The politics of the war with respect to the Galactic Consortium were challenging. When Malridian representatives attempted to earn the support of Tusagan and Pyrrhan forces in the war, they were met with opposition - Tusaga condoned the “mutual self-destruction” that was their campaign. Pyrrhan response was far worse - T’sa representatives shut down all trade and sharing of information to both Malridan and Kiara, and Fraal representatives took the request with surprising affrontery, threatening to disband the Galactic Consortium and even join the war themselves as a third agent at the suggestion of assistance of any sort. A tentative peace was maintained until the deployment of the two Gravity Bombs, at which point Tusagan and Pyrrhus representatives joined forces and demanded that both Malridan and Kiara cease all conflict, lest Malridan be expelled from the Consortium and Kiara never allowed in. Government and military leaders of East and West Estria, the Gorlican Empire, and the Kiaran United Front, as well as Consortium representation from Tusaga and Pyrrhus, met on Kiara’s moon Shephardine for the Grand Convention, in which the First Great Space War came to a conclusion, and all members of the Galactic Consortium, including Malridan, recognized Kiara as a sovereign entity in all respects, and several trade agreements were drafted between the major mining and processing companies of Kiara and governments of the three other worlds. Once the war had passed, a flood of hopeful immigrants left Malridan, and a handful from Pyrrhus and Tusaga as well, to settle the still quite plentiful lands of Kiara, and help to rebuild what originally was. The Kiaran United Front, in an effort to promote peace and future growth, changed its name to the Kiaran Unity of Nations, or the KUN, and assumed a role of planetary governmental organization for the small number of burgeoning nations that rose up. To date, it is the only planet with a unified global government, though its population is considerably lower than the other three planets. White Ring Live Interface complete (GY 32) The Rupture (GY 33) * While arcane and psionic magic was developed to incredible extent on Pyrrhus more than any other civilization in the Consortium, the secrets of teleportation - transporting objects, people, or energy long distances instantaneously - was still extremely experimental, possible but only with large amounts of energy and over short distances, and still with relatively high chances of failure - “failure” manifesting in the form of a missed target, the object arriving as heat energy, the object vanishing entirely, and other anomalies, many of which are quite deadly and dangerous. Pyrrhus, by Galactic Year 33, had managed to hone down the art to be reliable for small goods over inter-city distances, and wanted to expand. Arcane researchers from the Fraal Greater Academy (FGA) organized a large-scale experiment, collecting arcane energy in conduits for nearly a month in order to attempt the farthest teleportation spell ever performed - a teleportation of a small cargo crate to Pyrrhus’s moon, Qator, as it crossed over Severus, home city of the FGA. The rationale behind the experiment was that if it worked, then it would open the way to instantaneous cross-planetary transportation, signaling a grand step forward into a significantly more advanced future. If it failed, then the results could be studied and teleportation magic better understood, with the specific flaws amplified on a grand scale - a win-win for the researchers, and for arcane users everywhere. The moment arrived, the spell fired… and it failed, to a magnitude the Fraal were not remotely prepared for. The concentrated magical energy of the spell shredded the fabric of space in a straight line between Severus and the moon, and from the crack unleashed exponentially more energy than was used to cast the spell, resulting in a detonation that made a crater of the entire continent, and wiped out very nearly all life on the western hemisphere of Pyrrhus. Astronomically, it obliterated the near side of the moon Qator, and left a gigantic jagged black “crack” in space in a line between the planet and the moon, whose fragmented remains, along with the crack, are now locked in geosynchronous orbit, eliminating the effect of tides on the planet permanently. * Due to the central location of Severus on the western hemisphere (dominated primarily by Fraal, with the T’sa occupying the other hemisphere), the blast left the T’sa nearly untouched, but obliterated almost all terrestrial Fraal, reducing their population across the Consortium to less than a fraction of a percent of its original value - from nearly 20 billion to a mere hundred thousand across the galaxy, with a tenth of that consisting of survivors on Pyrrhus itself. * Those who survived the Cataclysm, most of whom were on the outer fringes of the western hemisphere and most of whom were Fraal, with a smattering of several thousand T’sa and even fewer humans and weren, found their arcane and psionic powers inexplicably enhanced, nearly doubling or tripling their innate ability. Research is ongoing as to why and how this effect has manifested, though at a slower pace than most Fraal would like, as the greatest research institude for the arcane and psionic, the FGA, was wiped off the face of the planet when the Rupture took place. Races of the Galactic Consortium Human (Malridan) * Approximately 25 billion in number, including genetic variants. Together with their genetic variants, they comprise a vast majority of the population of the Consortium. Most humans possess some small innate magical ability, but not very much. This can be enhanced with training. Humanoid Genetic Variants (Malridan) * Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes originate from certain home regions in Malridan, but largely moved to Kiara after the First Great Space War and the significant population migration off of Malridan. Genetic variants comprise about 10% of the population of humans, with Elves making up roughly half, Dwarves making up 40%, and Gnomes under 10%. All genetic variants of humans possess slightly more innate magical ability than regular humans, with gnomes possessing the highest amount. Weren (Tusaga) * A race of brutish, muscular humanoids averaging two to three meters tall, covered in gray or tan fur (with many variations) whose appearance is reminiscent to that of ‘werewolves’, anthropomorphic wolf-people of Malridan lore. Despite their intimidating looks, the weren pride themselves on their cultural and philosophical aptitude, holding that development of the self and the collective is more important than development of science and technology. It is expected that all weren, starting at a young age, be capable in some form of visual art, musical art, physical art, and magical art (weren are born with a similar magical aptitude to humans), and be able to discuss and appreciate all forms of art, regardless of capability. While the weren do not live under a unified government, they are the only race among the Consortium that speaks a unified language, known to outsiders as Old Tusagan - “old” in that most weren have actively begun shifting to Galactic Common as their primarly language (a simplified fusion of Estrian and Faigo, the languages of the East and West Estrian Republics), and most all Tusagan children are taught Galactic Common alongside Old Tusagan, and are expected to be fluent and capable in both. * Originally numbering only about one billion, the Weren underwent something of a population explosion upon first contact with the races of the Consortium, and now number in the range of four billion across the galaxy, with the terrestrial populus doubling in size and the rest leaving their home world to settle on others. Of the four major races of the Consortium, the Weren have migrated the most to other planets and exoplanets, possessing such desire to learn and appreciate the cultures and philosophies of their Consortium brethren. Fraal (Pyrrhus) * The Fraal stand roughly 1.5 to 2 meters tall, are humanoid in stature, and possess spindly, lithe bodies of vaguely sticky green skin and large, four-fingered hands and feet with bulbous tips. Their heads are ovaloid, and curiously large for their proportions, with two huge, bulbous black eyes. These are generally not visible, though, as it is deeply-ingrained within Fraal customs to wear a mask, created by the self upon reaching adolescence. The mask is traditionally made out of thin planks of fibrous plant matter and painted intricately with designs unique to the family lineage, while still being unique enough to show individuality. Most Fraal live independently or in small nuclear families, but keep ties to their extended families strong, and most often live locally or regionally together; in some cases entire villages or towns can be populated by two or three coherent Fraal lineages. The major defining cultural drives of the Fraal race as a whole are virility and forward progress - the race seeks to create as many offspring as possible, in order to increase the available workforce for forward development. In contrast to the weren of Tusaga, the Fraal care little for functionless art, and would rather see their work be put to use bettering the Fraal as a collective. Additionally, most Fraal governments and collectives are geared very heavily towards social ownership and the betterment of the many over the self; the average citizen would gladly give up their rights and freedoms if it meant technological, arcane, or psionic development for the species. Compared to the other races of the Consortium, the Fraal are by far the most magically gifted, with almost every Fraal highly capable in the arcane, and many capable of innate psionics, a field of the arcane that the weren of Tusaga had just begun to crack before encountering Pyrrhus. * Before the Rupture, the Fraal’s population was close to that of humans, approaching 20 billion - but the Rupture obliterated the vast majority of their population, reducing their numbers to a mere hundred million across the galaxy, roughly a tenth of that on Pyrrhus itself, as survivors of the cataclysm. In response to this event, the Consortium began funding a Fraal Repopulation Initiative, dumping resources into rebuilding of non-contaminated land on Pyrrhus’s western hemisphere and providing copious supplication to Fraal who create offspring, as well as spurring research into methods to genetically improve Fraal offspring and make them more healthy, robust, and virile to encourage further repopulation. T'sa (Pyrrhus) * The second sentient race of Pyrrhus, and developed entirely separate to the Fraal, these bipedal humanoids stand between half a meter to a meter tall, with pink, gray, or green leathery skin covered on the front with thin, overlapping scales of varying shades of brown. Like the Fraal, their heads seem a bit “too large” for their bodies, but in the case of the T’sa, it’s not due to cranial mass itself - the T’sa possess a multitude of horns, most protruding straight up from the top of their rather small skull, usually in two pairs facing outward with one large central horn that splits into two near the top. These horns are connected by a fleshy, webbed membrane, and when the T’sa are crouching down, a very common standing position for them, their “headdress” of horns can easily double their effective height. With contraction of skeletocranial muscles, the T’sa can condense their horns together laterally and flatten it along their back with a tilt of their head, to facilitate more spatially-sensitive situations, along with their copious climbing. They possess wide, webbed feet and hands, five fingers on the hands but only three long, spindly toes; a short, slender tail for balance, and beady black eyes amidst otherwise small facial features. * The T’sa could easily be considered the most “hyperactive” of the races of the Consortium, always fiddling with trinkets and climbing things, and most T’sa domiciles are large, spread-out buildings filled with oblong ledges, ladders, and handholds. T’sa architecture tends more vertical than horizontal, and rarely has coherent “floors”; instead, they tend to possess ledges at random points along the height of the interior to accomplish whatever stationary functional needs arise. * T’sa culture surrounding the arcane is somewhat complex. While the race is on the whole just as gifted in the arcane as their Fraal brethren are in psionics, it is seen as a cultural taboo to use magic for enhancement of the self or to aid in completion of a task, as it detracts from one’s self-worth and is inherently devaluing. While the T’sa value forward progress as much as the Fraal, and have become the fastest-advancing race of the Consortium, technologically speaking, they would rather it be done by their own, unaided hands rather than assisted by arcane prowess. Technological capability, however, is highly valued - and using arcane powers to enhance mechanical works is accepted, so long as you are not using the magic to enable yourself to create the technology. Such “arcanotech” is one of the greatest contributions to the Consortium that the T’sa have provided, and their techniques in fusing magic and technology have led to many breakthroughs, such as what ultimately led to the development of spatially inductive entanglement, allowing for near-instantaneous communications across the Consortium, as well as development of the neutrino amplification devices (NADs) and their starlight cores that power nearly all space-faring vessels today. Author's Note: The races listed above were originally from the D&D Modern role-playing system. The Galactic Consortium was a world I created for a D&D game among friends several years back, and as such their races were used as the models for the playable races in my world. The details as written, though, are entirely original, and do not adhere to the D&D Modern source material whatsoever beyond their name and physical design. You have reached the end of the introduction. Please enter a search term or external command to continue. > oe Please enter a passcode. > 3t35n81p858d133 WARNING: INVALID CODE ENTERED. ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE ENGAGED. TERMINAL WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN SIXTY SECONDS. > all th!ngs must c0me t0 an 3nd Welcome, High Counselor. Please select an option below. Story * Episode 1: Meridian * Episode 2: Meridian, Part 2 * Episode 3: Jeff * Episode 4: Meridian, Part 3 * Episode 5: Black Mountains, Northern Feruale, Kiara * Episode 6: Great Memorial Port, Shephardine * Episode 7: Kiaran Psionics Facility * Episode 8: Asana Secure Detainment Facility Characters * Amakir Lynch * Top Cat * Betty and Alice * Sector 9 Sergeant Julian Adbelasch * First Minister Monolith-of-the-Silent-Plain (Morgan) * Chancellor Eynas Marduk * President Bruce Malcaster of the Kiaran Unity of Nations * Supreme Sanctor Kavan Terevanas * Sector 3 Sergeant Leon Rathfein * Advisor Uluu Ka Walkrin * Number 48 * Xayan